LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 7, 2009) – The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and USA Volleyball (USAV), in conjunction with Molten U.S.A., Inc., are pleased to announce the Midwest/West Region at-large representative and seeding for the 2009 Molten Division III Men's Invitational Volleyball Championship. This year’s tournament will be held April 17-18 at Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J.

For the second consecutive year, the University of California, Santa Cruz has been named the Midwest/West Region at-large representative to the tournament. The Banana Slugs will join Juniata College, Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) NCAA Division III regular season champions, Stevens Institute of Technology, winners of the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) Tournament, and Ramapo College, the host institution, in this year’s event.

Juniata (14-7) is seeded first and will face fourth-seed Ramapo (24-7) at 8 p.m. ET on April 17 in the second semifinal match. Stevens (25-6) was selected as the second-seed for the event and will challenge UC Santa Cruz (13-9) at 5:30 p.m. ET on April 17 in the first semifinal. The consolation match will be played at 5:30 p.m. ET on April 18, followed by the championship at 8 p.m. ET. All four matches will be webcast live for the first time in the event’s history, and can be accessed on Ramapo athletics’ Molten Championship Web page by clicking here.

Juniata, whose streak of four consecutive Molten championships was stopped last year, has earned a berth in 10 of the 13 Molten Division III Men’s Championships and has won the event five times. Stevens has earned its sixth berth into the tournament, which is the most of any NECVA schools. UC Santa Cruz will be making its fourth appearance in the event, with a best-ever second-place finish in 2006. Ramapo will be competing in its first Molten Division III Championship.

Now in its 13th year, the Molten Division III Men's Invitational Volleyball Championship was formed due to a need for a culminating event for NCAA Division III men’s volleyball. While the NCAA sponsors a national championship for men’s volleyball, programs from all three divisions compete for just four berths in the yearly tournament. In the 35-year history of the men’s tournament, no Division III program has earned a berth or been selected to participate in the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship.

Both the selection of UC Santa Cruz and the seeding determinations were made via the Molten Division III Men’s Invitational Volleyball Championship committee on April 6 based on the established tournament criteria.